There's a rule in Italian cooking: with few ingredients you achieve a lot, if you know what you're doing. This recipe for pasta with anchovies and lemon, popularized by actor Stanley Tucci, is exactly that - a few things in a pan, and a result that smells of Mediterranean summer. "It's really good," was his plain verdict after the first bite.

The secret is in the anchovies - the tinned little fish many people avoid, thinking they'll dominate with a salty aroma. The opposite is true. Heated slowly in olive oil with thinly sliced garlic, the anchovies melt and dissolve into a creamy base full of umami flavor, without being recognizable as fish at all. That's the foundation of the dish.

The method is simple: anchovies go into a pan with olive oil and garlic over a low flame, left to soften, then fennel and grated lemon zest are stirred in. The cooked pasta is added - ideally bucatini, whose hollow center soaks up the sauce better - along with a cup of pasta cooking water to tie everything together. Finally, toasted breadcrumbs for crunch and contrast.

Why bucatini exactly? The pasta's hollow shape lets the sauce penetrate from the inside too, making every bite juicier. And the toasted crumbs aren't decoration - they give texture against the softness of the sauce, a contrast that turns a bowl of pasta into something considered. Italians have known this for generations; we needed an actor to remind us.

Tucci added, with humor, that the dish was "the perfect breakfast" - which says everything about his relationship with food. Not every meal has to be a dinner with ceremony. Sometimes the best thing in the kitchen is exactly what you make quickly, with what you have on hand, and without too much thinking.